Mesomorphic and photophysical behaviour of 1,3,4-oxadiazole based hockey stick reactive mesogens

Abstract

ABSTRACTNew hockey stick mesogens derived from 1,3,4-oxadiazole as a bent-core unit have been synthesised. The molecules resemble hockey stick shape due to the presence of two arms containing a different number of phenyl rings attached with the 1,3,4-oxadiazole bending unit. The shorter arm of the molecule consists of one phenyl ring and 4-n-alkyloxy terminal chains whereas the long arm of the molecule possesses containing two phenyl rings which are linked via imine linkage and reactive 4-n-undecenyloxy as a terminal chain. The thermal stabilities of the newly synthesised compounds were carried out by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The mesomorphic behaviour was investigated by polarising optical microscopy (POM) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). All the compounds exhibit enantiotropic nematic phase along with smectic phases (SmA and SmC phases). Interestingly, the compounds with lower 4-n-alkyloxy terminal chains (n = 4 and 6) exhibit a wide range of optically isotropic DC phase. On increasing, the terminal 4-n-alkoxy chain length the DC phase disappears. The photophysical properties of the compounds were investigated in different solvents and in the solid state. It was observed that the compound exhibit absorption in UV region and emission in the green region.